


Nine-Tenths of the Law

by blackkat



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [69]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Accidental Child Acquisition, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Found Family, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 13:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12607332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: As a last resort, they finally send Mikoto to talk to her.Kushina's not impressed, even though she has to admire their tenacity. They’ve tried three different elders, the woman who works at the ramen stand she likes almost as much as Teuchi’s, and Fugaku. Apparently, after the utter failure of that last one, they're attempting to pull out all the stops.





	Nine-Tenths of the Law

As a last resort, they finally send Mikoto to talk to her.

Kushina's not impressed, even though she has to admire their tenacity. They’ve tried three different elders, the woman who works at the ramen stand she likes almost as much as Teuchi’s, and Fugaku. Apparently, after the utter failure of that last one, they're attempting to pull out all the stops.

It’s too bad Mikoto looks just as happy to be on Kushina's doorstep for this particular reason as Kushina is to see her.

As soon as Kushina opens the door, boosting her little burden up a little higher on her shoulder, Mikoto gives her a commiserating grimace, though she doesn’t try to leave. “I'm here for the boy,” she says, with all the enthusiasm of someone realizing they just stepped in dog shit.

Kushina looks from Mikoto to the three-year-old asleep on her shoulder, then grins, all teeth. “Oh, did they find a foster family?”

Mikoto makes a face, but dutifully repeats the lines that one of the elders must have given her. “There aren’t any open families at the moment, but as soon as one becomes available—”

“Nope!” Kushina interrupts cheerfully. “Wrong answer. He’s mine, you know? Isn’t he just the cutest little brat?” She turns to proudly show Mikoto the boy’s face, slack with an exhausted sleep after their last round of tag in the back yard. He’ll be ready for sealing lessons soon, Kushina is certain. There are some fun ones that her mother taught her when she was that age.

Something in Mikoto's face softens, just a bit—she’s good at that poker face thing, but Kushina can read her. It’s all around the eyes.

“You're not going to give him up,” she says, and it’s not a question.

Kushina curls her fingers into the back of Obito's shirt, clutching him just a little bit closer. Easy to remember the surge of fierce, protective joy when he looked up at her and smiled for the first time, all alone in the market. She’d thought he was lost, missing his parents, and—

 _I don’t have them,_ he had told her, and smiled, all sweet, dark eyes and loneliness hidden right beneath the surface. _Nanny said she’d get me dinner at ‘Raku._

Kushina doesn’t know where the nanny went, or if she was even there in the first place. She’d swept Obito off and fed him and just—taken him home.

She’s lived alone since she was sent from Uzushio to Konoha. It’s so much brighter, finally having someone to share her home with her.

“I'm not going to give him up,” she echoes, and it’s the fiercest she’s ever felt in her life.

Mikoto sighs, like all of this is a trial, and tosses her dark hair back over one shoulder. “I warned them,” she says, mostly to herself, and then gives Kushina that pretty, pretty smirk that’s always had the effect of shorting out all higher brain function. “All right, move. I need to at least _look_ like I'm trying to convince you, so I'm staying for dinner.”

That’s the vicious, cunning manipulator she knows and loves. Kushina laughs, stepping to the side, and lets Mikoto slip past her. “It’s a date,” she says brightly, and Mikoto yelps, trips over her own feet, and almost faceplants in the entranceway.

Kushina laughs, shifts Obito onto her hip, and breezes past Mikoto on her way to the kitchen.

That reaction? Now _that_ is promising.


End file.
